The Wild Hunt
by hildekitten
Summary: When werewolf hunters hit LA Ben gets more than a little paranoid and the vamps get sucked in. Part 8 in my post sonata series, follow up to Halloween.
1. Chapter 1

The sun had started to rise, engulfing the city of Los Angeles in shades of yellow, orange and red glow. Most vampires had retreated to their freezers already at the time Mick walked into the apartment he shared with his younger sister Ophelia.

He was surprised to find her on the couch with a glass of blood and shifting through photos she took at a stake out earlier that day.

"Hey sis, what are you still doing up?"

"I have this nagging feeling in the back of my head."

**Mick voice-over**

"_Whenever my sister gets one of these feelings it always means I'll loose out on sleep. And that there's trouble ahead."_

"Did you get a vision?"

"No. And no I'm not sure whether that's just plain no or not yet."

"Why are you shifting through photos from yesterday's stake-out, it was a done deal. Tomorrow I'm going to give our client the photos, he'll be glad to hear his wife isn't cheating on him."

"And still there's something about the guy she was hanging out with."

"Maybe he has a crush on her and knows she won't return his feelings so he shuts up not to ruin the friendship." Mick offered up an explanation, stifling a yawn.

"Possibly…"

"Look have a good day's rest, you'll feel better in the evening."

"Yeah you're probably right." Closing down the laptop she followed her brother up the stairs, bidding him goodnight at her own bedroom.

"Night Mick."

"Night sis, if you get a nightmare, feel free to come wake me up ok."

"Thanks, but I rather not, you sleep naked and you know, potentially that'll be a whole can of worms and yeah." She teased him and smiled, a smile he happily returned before giving her a quick hug and going to his own ice cold bed. Suddenly he turned.

"If I weren't so damned tired I'd come up with a clever response to all of that you know."

"I know."

*fade to Mick wandering down the stairs into his living room, dressed in his silk pyjama trousers, his hair still wet from the frost.*

"Hey, did you sleep well?"

"Yeah, I can't remember what I dreamt at all so I'm pretty sure it's fine."

"Still got the nagging feeling?" He had started getting together his breakfast cup of blood when he asked.

"I'm not sure. Maybe it's just…"

Before she could finish, Josef wandered in, bickering with Beth over the sports results.

"Seriously that was a foul!"

"No Josef it wasn't, let it go." Beth sighed.

"How long has he been complaining?" Mick asked when he walked up to Beth and kissed her.

"For far too long." Beth whispered when the kiss broke.

"What are you up to?" Josef asked, looking over Ophelia's shoulder as she had gone back to shifting through photos. "Is it going to mess up my schedule?"

Beth, never able to resist anything even vaguely and remotely smelling of a mystery joined him.

"I have this nagging feeling."

"Oh good heavens, whenever you have those there's misery following suit." Josef cried out.

"Can you be even more melodramatic Josef?" Mick asked amused, pouring himself a glass of A positive.

"Got any B minus?" was Josef's response.

"Do you have to ask this every time?"

"Eventually you'll get tired of it and give me something that isn't non fat soy vegan blood." Josef sounded confident.

"Hey I know that guy." Beth pointed at a man in the background of a photo.

"From where?" Ophelia asked, turning to look at Beth, who was shifting through photos on her i-pad.

She showed the girl a photo of a crime scene. "Carl send these to me earlier. It's that guy."

"And he had his throat ripped out… and then some… well it explains the nagging feeling I had. I told you it was something!" she shouted at her brother, who simply shrugged and continued to drink his breakfast.

"It happened somewhere around 4 am is the coroner's preliminary estimate."

"It happened at 5.34."

"How do you know?" Beth looked at Ophelia in surprise.

"That's when the nagging feeling started." Ophelia said dryly.

*fade to Ben's office*

Ben is looking stressed, almost frantic.

"Where have you been?" he snapped at Beth as soon as she walked through the door.

"Jeez Ben, I'm on time." She replied sounding annoyed.

"I'm sorry it's just this case."

"What are you so riled up about?"

"I'm just tired."

"Ophelia said the exact time of the stabbing was 5.34, and we know our victim was in Gryffith park yesterday afternoon."

"Did Ophelia have a vision of him there?"

"Better, Mick and her were doing surveillance there and she caught him on photo entirely by accident." She handed Ben a print out of the photos and a memory stick.

"Find out who this guy is he's talking to."

"Already on it."

"Why are you still here then?"

"Mick's looking into it."

"Not this time Beth, I need you to call him right now and tell him to back off, and make sure Ophelia does so too."

"But why? Mick has always helped us with…"

"NOW BETH."

She looked hurt at Ben shouting.

"I'm sorry, it's just… please Beth, call them off." He sounded pleading.

*fade to Beth's place, she's sitting on the sofa with Mick*

"I have never seen him like this before. He never shouted at me before, there's something he's not telling us."

"Could it have something to do with the werewolf nation?" Mick ponders.

"I don't now Mick, he's not said anything about it, and I would think he would say something to us at least."

"Yeah you're right. But there is more to the case than he's letting on."

"Are you going to pursue it? Even after he said you shouldn't?"

"First of all, if he wants me off he's going to have to tell me himself. Secondly, I have to stick to it, Ophelia is refusing to let go."

"Oh dear…" Beth sighed and looked thoughtful.

**Mick voice-over**

"_This is definitely wrong, if Talbot is keeping secrets then it may be worse then we all think."_

"Where is Ophelia?" Beth asked.

"At Ben's I assume, she wasn't home when I left." Mick shrugged.

"So this means we won't be disturbed?" Beth asked, her voice husky.

"Well if someone is planning on disturbing us we've bought ourselves some time by making Josef and co think we're at my place." He chuckled, leaning in for a kiss.

*fade to Ben's apartment*

Ophelia is at the door, frowning and leaning her head against it. Pulling back and looking casual when she hears footsteps on the other side.

Ben is sticking his head out, looking rugged and tired.

"Hey, can we get a rain check? I'm swamped in work and now's just not a good time."

She gives him a long hard look, narrowing her eyes.

"Sure."

"Please don't be mad."

She simply rolls her eyes and turns her heel. He watches her stalk off, sadness in his eyes before closing the door and walking back into the living room.

"Who was that?" his guest asked, your vampire girlfriend? The woman was tall and lean, body of a supermodel and drop dead gorgeous in her burgundy dress.

"Yes as a matter of fact Claire."

"You blew her off."

"Thank you for stating the obvious."

"It's good, she has no business in our affairs."

"So you say."

"Really Ben, another woman?"

They turn to see Ophelia leaning against the doorframe, all casual coldness, her eyes black.

Claire stands, her eyes wolf like, looking at the younger girl.

"What are you?"

"A vampire."

"No you're not. You're something else. Witch-kin."

"Fine, in that case I'm something else that's leaving, I know enough."

"Ophelia it's not what you think!" Ben shouts, moving towards her.

"Let her go Benjamin."

"Yes listen to the bitch in red Benjamin." Ophelia's voice is cold.

"Who are you calling a bitch bloodsucker."

"You, or are you secretly a guy, that would really make this entire situation worse." She turned to walk towards the window from where she came in. Stepping aside when Claire launched at her. The werewolf landing gracefully and turning.

"You've seen too much."

"And you are extremely naïve if you think that you can stop me from leaving."

"Claire let her go!"

"No."

"Claire I mean it. I will not let you hurt her."

"She's not our kind Benjamin. She's not even what you think she is, look at her eyes."

Rolling her eyes Ophelia advanced to the window again.

"Claire she's not what she think she is!" Ben was pleading now.

"Out of curiosity, what do you think I am?"

"A witch."

"Oh in that case, no you're right, I am what you think I am." Ophelia shrugged.

"I knew it."

"What you don't know is the art of sarcasm, I'm not a witch, I'm a vampire. A normal plain old vampire, now please, move aside before I get really angry."

Ben grabbed Ophelia's arm and shoved her in the direction of the front door. "Leave, please."

"Gladly."

She started walking again, ignoring the sound of Ben grabbing hold of Claire and the snarling of wolves now behind her.

As soon as she got into the hallway she leaned against the front door, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. When she opened her eyes again they were still black.

*fade to Beth's flat*

Beth sighs as the doorbell rings and reaches on the ground for clothes, finding briefs and Mick's shirt.

"Whomever it is, their timing could be lousier." Mick chuckles, pulling in Beth for a quick kiss.

She grins and pulls on the clothes before going to open the door.

"Ophelia? What's wrong?"

"Can you give this to Ben at work tomorrow please?"

Beth looked into the box "sure put it on the kitchen table."

"Thanks." Ophelia walked in past her, dropping the box on the table.

"Mick?" she called out for her brother.

"Yeah sis what's up?" He appeared in his boxers in the bedroom door.

Before she got the chance to answer Beth, who was sifting through the box spoke up. "This is all Ben's stuff. What happened?"

"I don't want to talk about it. But don't let Ben anywhere near me or I will render him limb from limb, I can assure you that much. And if you meet a werewolf called Claire, just tell her I lied straight to her face and that she was right, you'll see a right spectacle then. Bye now."

*fade at Mick and Beth exchanging confused looks*


	2. Chapter 2

*Ben's office*

Beth walks in with Carl, who is carrying the huge and obviously heavy box and putting it on a table. Beth has closed it with brown tape.

"Thanks Carl, you're a star."

"No problem. See you at lunch?"

"Noon at the precinct and we'll go over the case."

"See you then."

She's all smiles and friendly warmth to her friend, but as soon as Carl leaves her eyes switch to pure rage. Without knocking she pushes open the door to Ben's work area.

"Whatever happened to knocking." He sounded grouchy.

"Explain to me why Ophelia dropped a huge and heavy box with your stuff off at my door yesterday evening."

"She did what? No matter, that is between me and her."

"It stopped being between you and her when that box landed on my kitchen table, with the express request to deliver it to you."

"I'll talk to her, now can we please go back to our jobs?"

"No you won't, because she also told me, rather menacingly I add, to not let you anywhere near her."

Ben looked at her, hurt obvious in his eyes.

"What else did she say?"

"Only that she'd render you limb from limb if you came near her. Which I'm pretty sure she could if she really got angry enough. And something about a Claire being right. Now it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that this Claire has something to do with that box."

"It's not what it looks like." Ben sounded annoyed now.

"Well what is it then Ben? Because right now with what little info I have is that you two broke up over a woman called Claire. Are you cheating on her? Because if you are then I won't try to calm down a whole group of very angry vampires. Apart from a brother she has 5 very nasty uncles and grandsire. And let's not forget all the unpleasantness Celia will inflict on you."

"Goddammit Beth!" he slammed his fist on the desk, sending some papers and an empty mug flying, his eyes wolf like. "You know me, I love that girl, I could never cheat on her, but if she believes that's the case and stays away from me then that's what she's more than welcome to buy. She'll be safe if she's not near me."

"You know Ben, right now I don't want to be around you, I'm going to be working from the morgue for the rest of the day. Don't call me unless it's about work. Or when you've figured out that you can actually share with people that are your friends."

He watched her stomp out, grabbing files and her purse on her way out, his brown eyes sorrowful.

*fade to Guillermo's office*

Mick was sniffing the dead body on the table, covered in a white sheet entirely.

"Silver."

"Yes he was shot with silver bullets and his throat slid with a silver blade."'

"But he wasn't one of us."

"Nope, no scent of decay on him what so ever."

"This degree of mutilation, he was tortured."

"Post mortem."

Mick frowned and looked at the corpse thoughtfully.

"Do you have any way of finding out whether this was a werewolf?"

"'Fraid not, I don't have a genetic reference sample."

They both looked up when they saw Beth walk in, struggling with coffee, files and her purse.

Mick hurried over and held open the door for her.

"Thanks. Hey you."

"Hey. Guillermo, if you don't mind I'm going to set up shop here today, I can't be around Ben right now."

"What did he do?" Mick looked suspicious with narrowed eyes.

"Well apparently your sister and him broke up."

"I figured as much."

"Well he confirmed that Ophelia indeed thinks he's cheating on her."

"I knew it, that bastard!"

"Filthy dog!" Guillermo added.

Beth was making shushing motions at them both, trying to keep two angry vampires from going to teach her boss a lesson right then at that single moment. "Ben claims that he's not cheating, and that he needs her out of his way for her own safety."

"And you believe him?" Mick was angry now.

"Frankly I don't know what to believe Mick, but I'm inclined to give Ben the benefit of the doubt. Where is Ophelia now?"

"At class I think."

"Ok well I'm meeting Carl for lunch, hopefully he can tell me more. Can you watch out for your sister?"

"Do you even need to ask?"

She paused and smiled warmly at him, looking into his slate blue eyes "no, no I don't."

*fade to Hearst college*

Ophelia was leaning against the wall, waiting for a class to end and students to come out.

"Hello Daniel…" She pulled him along by the arm to a quiet corner.

The boy shook himself loose and narrowed his eyes at her. "What do you want St-John?"

"I want to know what's going on in the were nation."

"That's none of your business."

"Specifically I want to know about a bitch called Claire. You're bound to know her, tall, pretty, supermodel like, hangs out with my ex."

"At least, Talbot saw the light dumped you."

"Such bravery to someone that can hand you your ass in pieces. You do realise that those cameras aren't recording right? And that there's no one here to save you."

"You're too big on your precious secrets to harm me here, vampire." The way he said it, it was clearly meant as an insult.

"You know, pup, maybe I don't give a fuck about secrets right now. Maybe I just want answers. Hell hath no fury and all that jazz. And my scorn is pretty unmatched once I get started, so spill."

She leaned in, her eyes black and her face pale. Daniel gasped.

"There's hunters around."

"There's always hunters around."

"Not like these, The Herne Society, they kill werewolves for their teeth, pelts, you name it. They're highly skilled, worse than your worst enemy the Legion."

"What a fucking joke, these people have obviously no understanding of the wild hunt from the Celtic times."

"Wait 'till they start hunting you. Last time I checked the eyes of an oracle were really quite valuable. Maybe they'll leave us alone if we trade you huh." He spat back, growling.

She looked into his wolf eyes and smiled, it was an evil, cold smile.

"You could always give it ago, I'm sure my family would love to hear about your clan making threats at me through you. I don't stand alone remember, and I am my grandsire's granddaughter, keep that in mind."

She walked away, leaving him there. He noticed the red lights indicating the cameras coming back on flicking along behind her as she went.

*fade to an old Victorian house, there's a gathering inside, Ben and Claire are both taking part of the argument, seated around an old mahogany table.*

"I say we find them and strike at them before they sniff us all out." A heavy build thirty something guy says, pounding his fist on the table.

"I say we go underground." Another man adds.

"And what about those of us with public profile jobs? If we go underground it will raise suspicion."

"Pray tell Benjamin, what is your job contributing to this investigation? You're not any closer to finding these butchers than we are."

"No all he did was get vampires on our trail." Claire said dryly.

"They won't be a problem."

"Yes they will…"

They turn to see Daniel in the door opening, with an older man.

"I think you should listen to my son." He sounded angry.

"Ophelia St-John cornered me after class today."

There were quite a few accusing looks at Ben.

"And?" Claire asked.

"She well…" he hung his head in shame.

"He told her what we're facing." His father sounded dark.

Cries of outrage filled the room.

"What did she say?" Ben asked.

"She seemed to be amused. I told her that it wasn't a laughing matter, that maybe we'd trade her for us." He looked at his feet.

"You did what?" Ben's voice promised nothing good, and his face was fully wolfed out.

"I didn't mean it! I just wanted her to back off."

"And did she?" an elder woman who seemed in her sixties asked. "Or can we expect some very angry, ancient and powerful members of the Duvall family to appear at our door soon, adding to our already significant problems."

"I'm sorry Elder Talbot, she did threatened to set her family loose on the clan."

A few of the men stood up from the table.

"Sit down." The woman spoke again, and they grudgingly obeyed.

She looked at Ben. "Benjamin I know you wish to keep her out of this, but the girl clearly has other ideas. You're going to have to speak to her, before she contacts her blood."

"I don't think that's such a good idea."

"It wasn't a request. Find her, and talk to her, keep her from getting the Duvall clan involved."

"Yes mother."

"Now please."

He nodded and stood.

"Claire, go with him."

"Ow mum come on." She complained.

"Now! Keep an eye on your brother. You know he's not thinking straight when that girl is concerned."


	3. Chapter 3

*fade to Mick's apartment*

Ophelia is lying in the sofa, stake through her heart. Her eyed closed and unmoving, she could have been mistaken for being asleep had it not been for the piece of wood sticking out of her chest.

Josef is looking at the situation with a mixture of shock and amazement.

Simone is looking profoundly upset.

"Don't worry babe, she'll unstake herself when she's done having an internal monologue."

"She can unstake herself?" Simone went wide eyed. "Can I do that too?"

"No it's a Duvall family perk. We're all jealous of that little trick."

Mick sighs from the other sofa where he's sitting with Josef and Simone.

"I really wish she'd deal with problems in another way."

"Fuck this, I'm going to put her on the ground, if Beth gets here we're out of sofa space, it's too cramped as it is!"

"Fine Josef just put her down gently." Mick sighed.

Just as Josef had lifted a staked and limp Ophelia in his arms, Ben pushed open the front door.

"What did you do to her?" he growled wolfing out.

"Get out of my place wolf, you're not welcome here." Mick shouted, vamping out and facing to stand the other man.

"Simone, go upstairs, lock the door."

She noded, acknowledging Josef's command before running up the stairs.

"My, my this seems like fun…"

Both vampires look at Claire, walking into the apartment and taking on the situation in front of her, closing the door lazily with a foot. Smiling dangerously when she heard the satisfying click of the lock.

Before Mick and Josef can properly react she launched at them, teeth and claws going for Mick's throat.

There's a scream of pain and surprise when she's suddenly suspended in mid air, making sounds as if she's choking.

Ophelia smiles menacingly, one hand holding up Claire by the throat and the bloody stake in the other.

"What the hell" Ben stammered.

Ophelia merely smiled viciously.

"Ophelia, put that wolf down."

"I don't know about that Mick, she tried to tear your throat out. Fucking Ben is one thing, but I can't abide by her hurting you. No one gets to hurt my big bother." She gave Claire's throat another squeeze, making her point abundantly clear.

Ben suddenly grabbed her shoulder, turning her towards him. She growled, letting go off Claire, who crashed to the ground coughing.

"Claire is my sister!"

"Eew that just makes it even more gross" Josef said disgusted, wrinkling his nose in disdain.

"She was helping me with this case. But as it turns out, I didn't have to look far for Hernians. Or witches for that matter." He looked at Ophelia in disbelief.

"Ophelia isn't a witch!" Mick shouted.

"What do damned witches have to do with this?" Josef asked annoyed, kneeling down next to Claire who was trying to get up and pushing her back down with one hand, keeping her pressed against the carpet "down bitch."

"I'm really not."

"Explain all of these powers then."

"Has the paranoia rotted your brain Ben? I'm an o-ra-cle." She put emphasis on every syllable.

"I just saw you pull a stake out of your own chest."

"Family trait."

"It's true" Mick nodded.

He ran a hand through his hair stressed. "Stay away from me and my family."

"THAT is what you came over to do? To attack us and to leave threats?" Ophelia glared

"you're the one that started the threats!" Ben shot back. "You told Beth you'd dismember me if I came near you."

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that." She took a step in his direction only to be pulled back by her brother. "No Lia, no."

"You're the one that would rather make me believe you were cheating on me than to tell me the truth!" She shouted angrily at Ben, unable to launch at him due to her brother's hold on her.

"What are we to you Benjamin? Bloodsucking vermin? Handy tools? Killers you can just point and click? Is this how little your really care? Well played, you deserve an Oscar for your performance." Mick threw at the werewolf, voice rising in anger. "And your little game of secrecy has endangered our own kind. Making it our business."

"Hunters would go after Ophelia just as easy as after any of you due to her being different, I had to keep her safe no matter what." Ben shot back at Mick.

"Don't you think I know that. Did you for a second think we would care about the danger if it meant helping a friend?" Ophelia shouted before continuing in barely more than a whisper "a loved one?".

Ben threw up his arms in defeat and looked at her as if trying to wordlessly communicate she really didn't understand.

She took a deep breath and steadied her voice, it was cold when she next spoke.

"Give him his sister back Josef, and let them leave. If this is how little we mean to him, how little I mean to him, then we've all been proven fools for thinking the nations could do more than just co-exist." She didn't look at Ben when she said it. Mick sensed her anger had fallen to a point where she just wanted to stomp off to her room and let her go.

"Tell Danny I'm sorry for scaring the shit out of him this afternoon."

"If you go near one of ours again…" Claire spat out, her voice croaking.

"Claire stop it!" Ben barked. "Enough is enough. Ophelia, I did what I did because I love you, because I thought that if there was no link between us they wouldn't find out about you or go after you."

"You should know me well enough to know you should have been honest." She didn't even look him in the eye as she spoke, turning her back to him and walking up the stairs.

"You fucked up majorly buddy." Mick glared, stopping Ben from going after his sister.

"Let me talk to her Mick, please."

"No."

"I love her."

"You should have thought about that before you broke her heart."

"Mick, please. If it were Beth you'd want to be given a chance to explain yourself as well."

Josef was eying the discussion suspiciously. "Kick his ass Mick, he deserves it."

"Yeah he does. But he is right." He looked Ben in the eye, his own eyes like liquid silver "Hurt her again and I'll tear you to pieces myself, understood?"

Ben nodded "Thanks man. Claire, go back home and tell mum what's happened."

"you must be kidding."

"Do it Claire! Remember what mother told us." he barked at his sister and tossed her the car keys.

"I'm going to get Simone downstairs" Josef said before running up the stairs.

Mick simply showed Claire out and slammed the door shut behind her whilst Ben walked up the stairs to Ophelia's room.

_Please don't go, I want you to stay  
I'm begging you please, please don't leave here  
I don't want you to hate for all the hurt that you feel  
The world is just illusion trying to change you  
Please don't go, I want you to stay  
I'm begging you please, please don't leave here_

*fade to Ophelia's room.*

She was sitting on the bed, her mobile phone in hand. The screen set to an ID reading "uncle lance". Doubting whether to call him or not she fidgeted with the little device. She didn't turn when she hears the door open softly.

"Ophelia."

"Go away Ben." Her voice was barely above a whisper.

He walked over to her, she could feel his weight on the bed, the shift in the mattress as he sat down just behind her, his body nearly touching hers.

"I know you don't believe me, and I am sorry that I didn't handle things better, but when I saw that corpse and smelt the silver I was so scared. And worried. I kept on thinking I had to protect my family somehow, protect you. I was terrified they'd find out about you and go after you. I love you so much, I can't loose you. And I am so sorry I hurt you, I promise I won't lie to you ever again."

"I wish I could believe you."

"You can. You know you can."

She turned to look at him. He can see she's biting back tears. Cautiously he raised a hand and softly stroked her cheek, wiping away the first tear as it fell down her face.

"Look into my mind Ophelia, you'll know I'm not lying." He undid the sleeve buttons of his shirt, rolling up the sleeve and offering his wrist to her.

"Are you sure you trust me enough not to do anything funky." Her voice is bitter.

"I trust you with my life. Because I love you. And if you don't love me back then just tell me and I'll leave and disappear out of your life. But if you love me too, which I know you do, you'll drink because I know you, you can't walk away knowing you passed up the opportunity for the truth.

"You are really sounding so sure of yourself, what if you don't know me as well as you think you do?" Her eyes are black when she looks into his.

*fade to Mick and Josef gathering up weapons downstairs*

"Are you sure we can find these guys?"

"Yes, we just need to find out which vamps have been selling blood to them and follow the trail."

"Wait, some vampires sell their blood to them? How will we find out about that?"

"Simple, via those of us that deal in blood."

"And then what if we find them, they're highly efficient hunters Josef."

"True, but they can be killed, they are only human after all and they operate in little cells of two or three, which makes it slightly easier for us, especially when we come in numbers. Besides, they blend in with society pretty well, so you know, gas leaks and such, we can figure something out so we don't actually have to confront them face to face. Thankfully they've exchanged their usual foresty hunting grounds for the urban jungle, which means I'll hopefully be able to keep myself clean. This is an expensive suit."

"How do you know all of this Josef? And why are they doing this?"

"Thrill of the chase, profit, trophies on their wall. They're hunters for the sake of the hunt. And I know because I've been around for a long time Mick." His voice was soft and Mick knew not to pressure his friend for more information. Instead he nodded, a determined look on his face. "Clearly. Let's go."

*fade to Guillermo's office*

Beth was eating Chinese take-away at his desk in his little office whilst he was drinking a cup of blood on the opposite side.

She smiles warmly when she sees Mick and Josef walk in, but the smile disappeared as soon as it appeared when she sees the look on Mick's face.

"What's wrong?"

"We need to find some hunters."

"The Legion, are thy back?" She asked, surprise obvious in her voice and expression.

"No, another kind of hunters, these mainly kill werewolves but you know, we're trying to avoid them branching out into the business of hunting vampires as well." Josef said cheerfully.

"You didn't happen to hear about any badly mutilated vampire corpses?" Mick asked Guillermo, sounding hopeful.

"Actually, Bella said something about that yesterday when she came to pick up her order of O positive. So I'm guessing cleaners have had to deal with their handiwork, you're going to have to ask her. I thought they generally avoided killing vampires in favour for just buying our blood though." His friend replied, his customary frown etched in his forehead.

Josef whipped out his phone and went out into the hall.

"What are you guys going to do when you find them?" Beth asked, unable to hide the worry from her voice.

"Currently I am still debating between getting involved myself or giving the address to the werewolves."

"So why are these guys killing werewolves?"

"For their pelts, teeth, they either sell them on apparently or keep them as trophies."

"That's horrible!"

"157 West avenue" Josef said sticking his head back in.

"Wait guys, just let Ben sort this out." Beth called out when Mick was preparing to leave.

"Beth, I promise we won't do anything without a plan first, we're just going to have a look for now ok."

*fade from Beth's worried face to Mick and Josef parking next to a house in a quiet residential block.*

Just as they got out, a house a good couple of yards away from them exploded.

Both vampires ducked down in their seats instinctively, looking at the blast with silver eyes.

"Was that nr 157?" Mick asked, in shock.

"Guess the werewolves found out about the address too and sorted the problem." Josef said dryly, staring at the fire ahead of them "probably for the best, or we would have had to come up with a plan and deal with them ourselves". He shrugged.

There were people coming out of their houses from all over the street, running up the inferno as close as possible. They got out too, staring at the chaos in front of them.

"How did they find out though?" Mick wondered aloud.

"Beth told me, and I told Claire."

They turned to see Ben stand there, in old jeans and a long sleeved top.

"Did you do this?" Mick sounds surprised, as if he never thought Ben to be capable of such brutality.

"You're not the only one who will kill to protect those he loves Mick, besides, gas leaks happen."

They watched him leave for his own car.

"Great minds." Josef grinned when he started the engine of his car.

_i'd catch a grenade for ya  
throw my hand on a blade for ya  
i'd jump in front of a train for ya  
you know i'd do anything for ya_

*fade to Ben's parents house, Ben's car is pulling up.*

He walked out and pulled open the door on the passenger's side, reaching out and smiling when Ophelia took his hand and got out. They were both in comfortable casual clothes, not their general attire.

"Don't worry darling, they'll love you." He assured her.

The look on her face betrayed she wasn't going to be believe it before she saw it.

They went inside the house, into the living room, which went quiet the moment they entered. Several gazes directed at them, Claire glaring quite openly.

"Ophelia, this is my clan, my family. Everyone, this is my girlfriend Ophelia."

"Hi… pleasure to meet you." She was looking around cautiously.

Ben's mother stood, smiling warmly and taking Ophelia's hands in hers. "Welcome my dear. It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Benjamin hardly ever stops talking about you…"

*fade at Ophelia smiling with relief and Ben wrapping his arms around her, whispering "I told you so" in her ear*.

Lyrics list:

VNV Nation "Illusion"

Bruno Mars "Grenade"


End file.
